BIRTHDAYS!!

We survived our first year of having 2 birthday within one week! Yes, Reese is now 7 and Raygan-Elise is one!

This year Reese wanted a spend the night party. Together :) we decided on having a rockstar party. He invited 5 friends and 3 were able to come-- Robert, Aaron, and Bryant. I took them home after school on Friday and their parents picked them up at Mcdonald's on Saturday. Reese wanted a white oreo rockstar ice cream cake! I think we found him one he liked! :) We ordered pizza and he wanted to eat it right from the box. He picked out everything he wanted at Walmart for the party-- Mountain Dew and Root beer (as he put it -- the mostest caffeine and the 2nd mostest of all caffeine), popcorn, 2 huge bags of candy (so they could drink and eat sugar and stay up all night he said), and a pancake breakfast bar (syrup, whip cream, chocolate syrup, sprinkles). We ate, open presents (2 friends gave him barakagons, 1 a gift card and we got him the DS with Zelda that he had wanted for a while), ate cake, and tie-dyed tshirts. They did stay up pretty late but when I went upstairs at 3:30 am they were asleep...well robert was awake. The next day we ate breakfast and got "rockstar ready" for McDonalds! It was a lot of fun and I think he really enjoyed it. Although he did tell me later that they ate the candy at the wrong time. Reese is excited about the summer and about going into 2nd grade. He still loves to draw and make things. Now he is creating a Zelda game that he has named, created big bosses for, etc that he is going to mail to the DS people so they can contact him about really creating it (or so he says). His new thing is to grunt when he is mad and I hate it! I take something away every time he does it and hope it stops soon!

On Raygan-Elise's real bday we went to eat at the Mexican restaurant and let her play in her 1st smash cake! She loved getting her hands on the cake and then clapped the icing all on the table and her hands!! The waiters sang happy birthday to her! This past Saturday, Raygan-Elise had her 1st birthday party- a pink and purple party. She really had a great time. We had it at our house and everything was pink and purple. She enjoyed her 2nd smash cake and playing with all her new toys. I was very sad to have this day come and go. She was great at the party...with her we are always nervous because you never know! But she played and took pics. She hated the hat that I took my time to make. She kept her bow on most of the time and wore her tutu until I took it off! She enjoyed opening presents and pulled out the tissue paper and smiled at each new toy. After the party, she fell asleep on my shoulder as I was changing the channel on the TV and she slept for 3 hours. She was exhausted!

Both birthdays were wonderful. I cannot believe this past year has already gone by! Our family is so special and I am blessed to be a part of it!!!

The next day...Sick Princess Baby

Catching up on the blog...March for babies was great, and then came Sunday night. Raygan-Elise fell asleep. After about an hour, I noticed she was breathing heavier and felt her...She was burning up. 30 min later, her temp was 103 (without adding any degree). We called Mamaw, cooled her down, gave tylenol, and hoped it was ear infection. The next morning, I got an appt. at 10:00 am. When I got there, her temp was just above 99. They said ears and throat looked great and did blood work. White count was really high so they suspected urinary infection. Tried to bag for urine. After 1.5 hrs., they said needed to go to leBounher ER for a cath. So, Raygan-Elise and I by ourselves drive to the ER. WOW! They were packed. I signed in and waited for my name. It was called pretty quick but just to fill out more paper work. BUT when they took her temp it was 104.9 and quickly they got her stripped down and moved up quickly to top of stack for an ER room. That day was awful. Both of us, by ourselves in ER room. They tried to cath her 10 times and did some other procedure where they stick needle through stomach into bladder. Didn't get any urine. They did blood work, chest xrays, and a bladder ultrasound. Late that evening, we were assigned a room. Brian and SL came that night. SL spent the night. Most of days are kind of blurry. Her blood culture started to grow something so they put on antibiotic. Urine was fine. Later we learned she had a live germ called strep pnemo in her blood stream. They did a spinal tap, changed antibiotics, she had a red-man reaction to one antibiotic- very scary, started iron bc very anemic. She cried anytime doc or nurse walked in the room. By Wed, she was better, then Thursday ran fever again and feeling worse. Disease control people in and out of room. Changed IV from arm to foot. Finally Saturday we were better and ready to go home. We appreciate so much the docs and nurses at Lebouhner and especially Dr. Barrett at our clinic who sent us there. This was so very serious but could have been worse had it not been caught and diagnosed appropriately! While in the hospital Raygan-Elise passed the time by watching Baby Einstein, sleeping, and even learned how to "feed the baby" by using a pretend baby bottle toy mom bought her. I enjoyed ordering for us off their cafeteria menu which was really nice!! Raygan-Elise is now well and doing great.

The next day, my mom was also put into hospital and had the same thing in her lungs and blood. They've discovered a blood disease as well as a enlarged spleen. She is now doing many follow-up appts. to get more information.

Posting pics of Raygan-Elise in her hospital gown/bed. They are in mixed up order. Not date order...and yes, I took pics of her when she was sick. Bad mommy! It wasn't a comfortable week with us both sleeping in the hospital crib. The week after we got out I would wake up having flash backs of being in those crib bars and scared she would fall on concrete hospital floor! What a crazy couple of weeks...I'm still recovering from it all!

March for Babies 09

Lots and lots going on and I'm trying to catch back up on blogging! First, we had a great time at our first March for Babies event on Saturday, April 25! Our family team-- Me, Raygan-Elise, Bethany, her son, Jack, Anna, Mary Ann, and Shaun Leigh-- raised $1000 for March of Dimes! I must admit that although excited about the day, I was nervous I wouldn't make the whole 4 miles. But, I did and she did and so did everyone else! The night before we stayed at a hotel and went out to eat. Raygan-Elise had a grand time! The big even was bigger than I ever thought. Cars were backed up trying to get to parking. It was wild!! Bethany's mom made Jack and Raygan-Elise cute outfits and I think our shirts (Designed by Andrea Dancy! THANKS!!) were the best there!! Lots of fun, lots of sweat, lots of babies, lots of laughs! Can't wait till next year!